Object Mapping library from JSON to NSObjects

Question

I am trying to build a parser/objectMapper that will build Objective C objects for the JSON I consume from a REST service.

I took some inspiration from RestKit by having

Answer 1

Why not add mappings for classes?

+ (NSDictionary *)mapClasses {
    return @{
            @"category": [Category class],
            // ...
    };
}

For non-container properties, you could even do runtime introspection of properties to avoid redundant mappings.

Container properties could map to special wrapper objects:

[OMContainer arrayWithClass:Key.class], @"keys",
[OMContainer dicionaryWithKeyClass:ScopeID.class valueClass:Scope.class], @"possibleScopes",

Or even blocks for dynamic selection of types:

[OMDynamicType typeWithBlock:^(id obj){
    if ([obj isKindOfClass:NSString.class] && [obj hasPrefix:@"foo"])
        return Foo.class;
    else
        return Bar.class;
}], @"foo", 

Implementing this could go something like:

+ (NSArray *)parseData:(NSData*)jsonData intoObjectsOfType:(Class)objectClass {
    NSArray *parsed = /* ... */
    NSMutableArray *decoded = [NSMutableArray array];
    for (id obj in parsed) {
        [decoded addObject:[self decodeRawObject:parsed intoObjectOfType:objectClass]];
    }
    return decoded;
}

+ (id)decodeRawObject:(NSDictionary *)dict intoObjectOfType:(Class)objectClass {
    // ...
    NSDictionary *jsonKeys = objectClass.mapProperties;
    NSDictionary *jsonClasses = objectClass.mapClasses;

    for (NSString *key in jsonKeys.allKeys) {
        NSString *objectProperty = jsonKeys[key];
        NSString *value = dict[key];
        if (value) {
            id klass = jsonClasses[key];
            if (!klass) {
                [entity setValue:value forKey:objectProperty];
            } else if (klass == klass.class) {
                [entity setValue:[self decodeRawObject:value intoObjectOfType:klass]
                          forKey:objectProperty];
            } else if (/* check for containers and blocks */) {
                // ...
            }
        }
    }
    // ...
}